SOUND GENERATION 5IF3FTPOBOU7PJDFTPG5FFO(JSMT A WriteGirl Publication ALSO FROM WRITEGIRL PUBLICATIONS Emotional Map of Los Angeles: Creative Voices from WriteGirl You Are Here: The WriteGirl Journey No Character Limit: Truth & Fiction from WriteGirl Intensity: The 10th Anniversary Anthology from WriteGirl Beyond Words: The Creative Voices of WriteGirl Silhouette: Bold Lines & Voices from WriteGirl Lines of Velocity: Words that Move from WriteGirl Untangled: Stories & Poetry from the Women and Girls of WriteGirl Nothing Held Back: Truth & Fiction from WriteGirl Pieces of Me: The Voices of WriteGirl Bold Ink: Collected Voices of Women and Girls Threads Pens on Fire: Creative Writing Experiments for Teens from WriteGirl (Curriculum Guide) IN-SCHOOLS PROGRAM ANTHOLOGIES Unstoppable: Creative Voices of the WriteGirl & Bold Ink Writers In-Schools Programs These Moments: The Creative Voices of the WriteGirl In-Schools Program Ocean of Words: Bold Voices from the WriteGirl In-Schools Program Words & Curiosity: Creative Voices of the WriteGirl In-Schools Program This Is My World: Creative Voices of the WriteGirl In-Schools Program Ready for the Next Chapter: Creative Voices of the WriteGirl In-Schools Program No Matter What: Creative Voices from the WriteGirl In-Schools Program So Much to Say: The Creative Voices of the WriteGirl In-Schools Program Sound of My Voice: Bold Words from the WriteGirl In-Schools Program This Is Our Space: Bold Words from the WriteGirl In-Schools Program Ocean of Words: Bold Voices from the WriteGirl In-Schools Program Reflections: Creative Writing from Destiny Girls Academy Afternoon Shine: Creative Writing from the Bold Ink Writers Program at the Marc & Eva Stern Math and Science School Words That Echo: Creative Writing from Downey, Lawndale and Lynwood Cal-SAFE Schools The Landscape Ahead: Creative Writing from New Village Charter High Schools Sometimes, Just Sometimes: Creative Writing from La Vida West and Lynwood Cal-SAFE Programs Everything About Her: Creative Writing from New Village High School Visible Voices: Creative Writing from Destiny Girls Academy Now That I Think About It: Creative Writing from Destiny Girls Academy Look at Me Long Enough: Creative Writing from Destiny Girls Academy Heather Lim, age 17 A typical millennial’s mental process after posting something. #summer I posted a picture of myself lying down in the sand next to my friend. We were wearing white bikinis. Hashtag summer has finally begun! It’s been five seconds and the only person who liked was my pastor who left the church last year. Hope he’s doing well. It’s been one minute now and a girl commented, fire emoji, heart-eyes emoji, fire emoji. Compliments, emojis, lies. Refresh for likes. Refresh for fulfillment, for enjoyment, for love. Hashtag bits of dopamine. I’m waiting. Hashtag when will my phone buzz. I receive no notifications. I Photoshopped this picture to perfection and there are only 20 likes. What a shame. My friend says self-esteem is maximized, mental health deteriorating. Hashtag delete. 30 Samantha Campbell, age 16 I wrote this poem last year for the Los Angeles Youth Poet Laureate competition. It was inspired by the problems, ridicule and struggle I’ve faced through having curly hair over the years but have ultimately accepted as a positive quality. Curly Hair A little girl with curly locks, twisted into migraine-inducing braids. Bloody murder from her lips, individuality hidden away, a monster in a sea of straight waves. Tearing at her cursed scalp, she clawed the unruly strands, begging them to straighten. Little girls pet her hair like a petting zoo attraction. Adults fawned over her, exclaimed she was a doll. Doll scalps were straight — she was not a doll but rather an unwanted reject, recalled from toy-store shelves, replaced with a straight blond bun in a dollhouse of replicas. After-school cartoons, straight brown ponytails, braids dragged her head down onto the couch. Magazine covers advertised hot irons in the aisles of department stores. Tiny curious hands, caught red-handed in the bathroom. She dropped her weapon, sentenced to serve time in the corner, mother praising her curly locks. CHAPTER 1: TEEN LIFE 31 Vivian Enriquez, age 17 I am not a musical person. When I found out that the theme of the anthology was going to be music, I did not know how I would incorporate it into my poetry. It turns out, writing is one of the only ways I have the ability to be musical. My life experiences and the little research I did on specifc instruments inspired this piece. Trumpet, Harp, Tambourine, Saxophone When I was born, I was a trumpet. I shined like clean brass in my father’s eyes. I would feel the vibration of my mother’s lips as she sang to me. Before the age of ten, I was no longer a trumpet. I was a harp, becoming tired of my parents plucking away at my innocence each time they yelled. After mighty percussions I tried to hide that I was a tambourine. A tambourine woman with no sign of bruising. But this is not a sad story. I am a saxophone. One that refuses to hide her voice. This here, this writing, my heart, the wind that takes a journey through my anatomy, is how I sound and who I am. 32 Nicole Jefferson, age 16 I listen to music all the time. I love that there is always a song to describe exactly how I am feeling when I can’t describe it through my own words. This poem is meant to show the various activities of my life by describing the sounds associated with them. Soundtrack of My Life The soundtrack of my life is the clicking of the keys on my computer as I stay up late finishing homework. It is the cheering of crowds at Friday night high school football games and the barking of my dog running to the door to greet me when I come home. The soundtrack of my life is the wedding band playing “Here Comes the Bride” as I watch my aunt walk down the aisle in her glowing white dress. It is the ringing of my alarm clock at precisely 5:27 every morning and the drip-drops of scattered rain that come every December. The soundtrack of my life is the clacking of my tap shoes as I do a shuffle, toe-heel. It is the honking of geese on Sengekontacket Pond every summer morning, and it is my best friend and I laughing obnoxiously loud together. And for all those moments of joyous sound there is a stark opposite. The soundtrack of my life is also the sniffling of my stuffy nose when I get sick. It is the funeral band as they lead the procession out of the church. Through all of this noise, there is a song to complement every emotion that I am feeling. And in that, I find solace. CHAPTER 1: TEEN LIFE 35 Katarina Lashley, age 17 In this song, I was imagining why people choose to leave their home, or the person they love. Forgive Me You look around in the empty town, and see that I am gone. By the theatre, by the park, by the bakery with its line too long. I left, and you’ll never know what I felt. You’ll just know that I am missing. I hope someday you’ll forgive me. We were living the lives that children live, kids turned to teenagers, trying to fit in. I tried to squeeze inside a skin that wasn’t mine. I tried to find a place to belong. Turns out, I was in it all along. I left, and you’ll never know what I felt. You’ll just know that I am missing. I hope someday you’ll forgive me. 36 Erica Logan, age 18 18 Lunar Years The moon tells me stories, stories of old rituals and ancient times, its thoughts on life and the world. The moon knows my story, all my 18 years of moons, all the different phases. We’ve grown together, starting out new: dark, stormy, growing into something full, transparent. She lights the night and paves the way for the day. I hope to embody her light and bring a path to those in the night. The moon tells me stories. She reminds me of the gift that this is, the 18th year, the pivotal point, the edge of the cliff, the brink of what is known. So tonight, the last night of 17, I will hold hands with the moon, and together we will step into the edge of tomorrow. CHAPTER 1: TEEN LIFE 37 Amayah Watson, age 17 I wrote this because this is me — the titles of music that have changed me. I started writing this at a WriteGirl workshop at the Huntington, and I feel like I came a long way and learned plenty of things about music that I didn’t know before. My Playlist I come from singing Doo-Wops and A Cappella, being my own Dangerous Woman, strutting and being confident and a Q.U.E.E.N. Fake Loves and Ill Minds to Blessings I can never forget to always hold true. The False Advertisements of Victorious victories. Traveling and seeing the Vegas Lights shining for miles, but still being a Cali Girl at heart. Covering myself with every song of the world, from centuries to come, and having my L.A. Love. Fallin’ Out and into Misery Business and finding myself. Being Just Fine, listening to myself, being myself. Having some of the Best Mistakes with some Deja Vu along the way, I’ll never Get Around, Without Myself Being Crazy but also Genius and starting over to Repeat.